Weird terminal/vim issue

[markpapadakis]

I 've been using Ghostty at work all week (thanks, @mitchellh !) and I 've been dealing with this odd issue every day very often.

I am using VIM and I assigned CTRL-K to a python3 script that runs clang-format to format my C++ code. I set it up like that many years ago, and I've been using it without any issues since (iTerm2, Terminal.app, and some other random terminals on Linux and Windows).

On Ghostty, sometimes CTRL-K doesn't do anything on vim after using vim for a while. I know that because the script itself is not accessed/used so is a matter of the key combination being registered by vim. So ctrl-k does nothing.

map <C-K> :py3f /vault/utils/ext/clang-format.py<cr>
imap <C-K> <c-o>:py3f /vault/utils/ext/clang-format.py<cr>

If I restart VIM, it works perfectly fine again, until it doesn't.
My ghostty config:

command = /bin/bash
click-repeat-interval = 500
confirm-close-surface = false
term = xterm-256color

I can't reproduce it on demand; it manifests fairly often but can't guess what triggers it.

[mitchellh]

There isn't enough to go on here to say where this issue is. I need to ask you for more information: are you seeing the keyboard events in the terminal inspector? Can you build a debug version and see if anything pops up? Can you provide a more minimal reproduction (I'm not interested in reconfiguring neovim)? Does this reproduce if you change the keybindings? etc.

[markpapadakis]

I will use the terminal inspector tomorrow, but vim(not nevoid) certainly doesn't register/react on the CTRL-K keypress. I understand it's weird, and it shouldn't have been Ghostty related, but I never had that issue before, with any other terminal, whereas I am getting this fairly often when using Ghostty. I 'll also experiment with a different keys combo, and whatever else I can do. Thank you.

[markpapadakis]

According to the Terminal Inspector/keyboard

1. Press: Ctrl+left_control
2. Press: Ctrl+k
3. Release: Ctrl+k
4. Release: left_control

This seems to be fine, because restarting vim to get it to work again, reports the same sequence.

[markpapadakis]

As I explained, I bound CTRL+K not CTRL-k to that p3f script execution.
This should execute the script if I press, effectively, CTRL+SHIFT+K.

on ITerm2 (and every other terminal I've been using/tried):

• ctrl-shift+k: doesn't do anything
• ctrl+k: executes the script

on Ghostty:

• ctrl-shift-k: executes the script
• ctrl-k: executes the script, UNTIL it no longer does; one way to "fix" this "issue" is to restart Vim. Even when ctrl-k fails, ctrl-shift-k works.

So:

• while the key combo is ctrl-shift-k(i.e uppercase K), iTerm2 and others do not process that keyboard event, ghostty does
• ghostty and every other terminal I 've tried process ctrl-k(shift not pressed) even if should only work for (ctrl+shift+k)
• ghostty randomly stops registering ctrl+k, but ctrl+shift+k is not affected

[mitchellh]

Converted to a discussion until we can get a bit more reproducibility or information out of this as noted in our contributing guidelines.

[markpapadakis]

For what it is worth, it hasn't been resolved yet; it's still happening. I need to restart VIM for this to work. It's not a big deal for me personally, but it's definitely odd.

[qwerasd205]

I wonder if this might be a case of something that runs inside nvim accidentally messing up the keyboard mode

[jwertkin]

I ran into the same issue with vim and figured out a way to reproduce it:

I used the default ghostty config and a minimal .vimrc with only these four lines (remapping the commands to move between vim windows):

nnoremap <silent> <C-h> <C-w>h
nnoremap <silent> <C-j> <C-w>j
nnoremap <silent> <C-k> <C-w>k
nnoremap <silent> <C-l> <C-w>l

1. Open a fresh ghostty window and open vim within it
2. Type :vs and hit enter to create a vertical split
3. Press ctrl+l and ctrl+h to move between the windows
4. Press cmd+l
5. Press ctrl+l and ctrl+h, they no longer move between the windows

At this point, quitting vim and opening it in the same ghostty window does fix the issue.

Also it's worth mentioning that the default key commands to move between windows in vim (e.g. ctrl+w l) continued to work after pressing cmd+l.

[jwertkin]

While cmd+l seems to reproduce the issue, I ran into it enough that I would be surprised if that was the only way to get into this state. I would have only pressed cmd+l by accident while trying out ghostty splits in combination with vim splits.

[chrisfrank]

Thanks for the reproduction, @jwertkin! I'm seeing the same thing, not just with cmd+l but also cmd-i, cmd-s, or (seemingly) any other cmd- shortcut that isn't already claimed by Ghostty. After triggering an unmapped cmd- shortcut, control-based split navigation breaks in Vim until I exit and start a new Vim process. Running Ghostty v1.0.1 on macOS 14.7.1.

[clowder]

Seeing something similar here using nnoremap <c-p> :FZF<cr>. Works initially, but command+tab away and back to the Ghostty window breaks the key map. Weirdly if I throw a shift in there (ctrl+shift+p) it works, but the original (ctrl+p) does not.

[clowder]

Found a minimal repro for my case.

1. vim --clean
2. :nnoremap <c-p> :copen<cr>
3. Press ctrl+shift+p to launch the quick fix menu. This is the wrong shortcut but very easily done in normal operation.
4. Close the quick fix menu
5. Press ctrl+p nothing happens

Looking at the terminal inspector the expected key events are being recorded.

[luiscvega]

Oh, I just commented but then I saw that it's happening to you as well, same scenario: fzf with ctrl+p. But mine doesn't break whenever I alt+tab (I'm using Debian). It just stops working after awhile.

[allainpascal]

I have the same issue described above.

In VIM, I do use CTRL+J and CTRL+K to move left and right in my tabs. If I press Shift or the Alt key doing that combination, it becomes impossible to change my tabs. In fact, if I press any Alt+Key, I am reproducing the problem. To fix the issue, I must close VIM, but I can leave the terminal open.

I made some tests with 'aerc' (email client), which I configured with 2 tabs using the same keybinds to switch between them.

I can throw all kinds of key combinations and I don't experience the problem. I also did a test with neovim, which didn't cause the problem either.

The key inspector is sending the same keys in both cases: when it's working as expected and when the issue occurs.

I tested on River and Niri, the window manager doesn't affect the results.

I looked at the open issues on the VIM side, I didn't find something similar; which is weird considering the popularity of Ghostty and VIM.

Maybe we are posting in the wrong project...

Environment:

• Wayland 1.23.0
• River 0.3.7_1
• Niri 0.1.10.1_1
• VIM - Vi IMproved 9.1 (2024 Jan 02, compiled Dec 18 2024 03:52:43) Included patches: 1-772

[luiscvega]

This is happening to me as well. I am using fzf.vim which is activated when I use ctrl+p. Here is my .vimrc:

set rtp+=~/.fzf
nnoremap <silent> <C-p> :FZF<CR>

It works for awhile and then just suddenly stops at some point. I close vim and open it again and it works.

I'm using Debian 12.

[markpapadakis]

For what it's worth, I switched to neovim (I wish I had done so earlier), and it is not affected by that issue.

[chrisfrank]

I upgraded to vim 9.1.1100 today and this is no longer an issue 🎉